Terza Rima

by Meirelle

Chapter Two: Lost and Found

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So angel, I feel so numb and so far away.

I can see myself on the pavement where I lay.

Oh angel, why do I stare so? What do I see?

Why do these lifeless eyes look that way back at me?

--The Cruxshadows, "The Dying Song"

---

His head hurt a lot. Not only his head, but his entire body. He opened his eyes slightly, expecting the harsh daylight to filter in, but he was surprised when only darkness greeted his eyes. What the..? Where am I, and what happened? He remembered falling and... Temen ni Gru!

Dante sat up in a rush, which caused his vision to swim. Where was Vergil? He looked around frantically, all while trying to fight off a bout of nausea. He didn't realize just how dark it was. It was raining, and there was very little light. Why can't I see? It shouldn't have been a problem for him. He'd been in places where it was pitch black before, and he had been able to see just fine.

"V…Vergil?" he croaked. It was all he could manage at the moment. He was shaking, either from the cold or his injuries, he wasn't sure.

Something flashed at the edge of his vision, and he turned to look. It was a light, moving back and forth, as if searching for something. Is that a spotlight? There were noises too, coming from the same direction: shouts and the sound of moving vehicles.

One of the objects in question suddenly rounded the corner and came into view. The vehicle looked like it belonged to the military, as well as all the other ones following it. Dante looked for any sort of markings that would let them know what branch they were from, but his vision was all blurry. He assumed they were Army, but he was never good at figuring out that kind of stuff.

"You and you--check over this way. Keep an eye out for any survivors." Figures with lights started to walk down the deserted street towards the disoriented devil hunter. Dante squinted as several lights shined in his eyes.

"Sir! We've found one!"

Dante shakily rose to his feet and stood unsteadily, waiting for the approaching soldiers to find him. He winced. Everything hurt too much. This wasn't right. He shifted his weight to his right foot, lost his balance, and fell to the ground. "Aaah!"

This entire situation was confusing him. Why does it hurt so much? I've been shot in the head before and haven't even winced about it, for Christ's sake.

"Sir, are you okay?"

The query startled Dante out of his reverie. He looked up at the man questioning him, and squinted at the light being shone in his face. "I, uh..." He wasn't all right. His thoughts were all jumbled together, and it was hard to think, and he hurt all over. "I dunno."

"Can you stand?"

Dante closed his eyes and swallowed the bile rising in his throat. He shook his head violently.

The man sighed. "Right." He turned to the rest of the troops further down the street. "We need a medical unit over here." He turned back to Dante as more troops started to arrive on the scene. "Don't worry. It'll be all right." He tried his best to be reassuring, but failed rather miserably.

Dante looked up at the man blankly. "W...where's Vergil?"

The man blinked. "What?"

"Vergil," Dante mumbled, starting to panic. "My brother. He was right here. Where is he?"

The soldier sighed yet again. "Er...We're looking for him right now. Don't worry about it. We'll find him."

Dante nodded hesitantly. The explanation seemed to satisfy him for now. The flips in his stomach seemed to dull, so Dante deemed it safe to attempt to stand again. The soldier, seeing the devil hunter's attempts, helped Dante to his feet and guided him several meters to a waiting stretcher. Dante blinked. "No."

The soldier blinked. "Excuse me?"

"M'okay now; I can walk." Dante stared at him defiantly.

The man's mood dropped visibly. "If you say so."

Dante hesitantly stepped forward and instantly faltered. "Whoa!"

"Right." The soldier tried to hide a smirk as he guided Dante in the direction of the medical unit.

---

Dante managed to stagger over to one of the many military vehicles, with some help, of course. The man from before was joined by a woman, and they jointly helped him up into the back of the truck. Dante stared straight ahead, his eyes unfocused. He was having trouble concentrating, and he felt tired.

The woman stepped in front of him, startling him out of his daze. His vision cleared for a moment, and he saw her look back at him in concern. "Where's Vergil?" he asked.

The woman looked bemused for a second before turning to the soldier beside her.

"It's his brother," he supplied.

"Ah," she said, nodding, then turned back to Dante. "We're looking for survivors. If he's here we'll find him." She smiled at him warmly. "Could you tell me your name, sir?"

There was a long pause, and then, "Dante. Um...Dante Sparda."

"My name is Dr. Frasier," the woman supplied. "I'm just going to check you over and see what's wrong." Not waiting for confirmation, she pulled a tiny light from one of her vest pockets and shined it in his eyes. He squinted.

She nodded to herself and put away the light. She then asked him a few questions about his age, where he lived, and when his birthday was. After she came to the conclusion that he answered correctly, she said, "Well, Mr. Sparda, you have a concussion. Thankfully, it's not too severe. A cold ice pack and some Tylenol should fix that."

"Oh," Dante said, looking down at his feet dangling off the edge of the truck. "S'at why I can't think?"

The doctor chuckled. "Yes. That's probably it. Now, understand, I want you under constant supervision for twenty-four hours. If these symptoms persist, you're going to have to go to the emergency room." She looked as if she was going to say more, but she was interrupted by frantic shouting from down the street.

"Hey! We need some help over here! We've found another one!"

The doctor looked at the soldier waiting by her side. He nodded to her and ran off down the street with several of his comrades. The woman turned her attention back to Dante and frowned. "Is that a cut on your hand?"

Dante remembered the damage Yamato had done to his left hand and nodded nervously. It should've healed by now.

The doctor removed Dante's glove and examined his hand. "It looks deep," she said to herself. She moved off to his right and came back with a bottle of something and some cloth. She opened the bottle and poured some of the liquid content on his wound. Dante instinctively pulled his hand away and winced. "It's okay. I'm just cleaning it," she reassured.

Dante grudgingly gave his hand back. Damned cut shouldn't still be there in the first place, he thought. The woman cleaned most of the blood off. The wound had stopped bleeding, but it still looked pretty nasty. He wouldn't be surprised if it was infected.

The rain started coming down harder, and the woman moved under the protection of the covered vehicle. She wrapped Dante's hand in a bandage and told him he was lucky he didn't need stitches. Dante was about to convince a reluctant doctor to release him when he saw the medical team coming back, carrying a familiar figure.

"Vergil!" Dante gaped at his brother's prone form. There was a large gash across his midsection from Rebellion as well as some nasty-looking bruises on the side of his face. "What's wrong with him? He shouldn't be hurt this bad."

The doctor and soldiers ignored his queries and moved Vergil's prone form into the back of the vehicle. "Get that cut cleaned up; I don't want it getting infected," the doctor instructed.

A drenched soldier ran up to the side of the truck. "Ma'am, there are no more civilians in the area. We are getting ready to move out. It's not safe for us to stay inside the perimeter with injured people; the area is no longer secure."

The doctor nodded curtly. "Inform the Colonel that I'm ready to leave."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Is he okay?" Dante asked.

"He'll be all right if we get him to a hospital," she said.

Dante nodded his head. "Okay."

"Here," she said, handing him a warm-looking blanket. "I don't want you getting hypothermia as well."

The doctor left to tend to Vergil a few feet away. The engine roared to life, and the vehicle crawled away from the remains of Temen ni Gru. Dante wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and watched the woman clean his brother's wounds, letting the lull of the engine lure him to sleep.

---

end.ch.212.05.

Author's note:

Yeah. I changed the name. Das Fallen was more like a working title. It was German, and German is cool. So, yeah. It really had nothing to do with the story. I thought about naming the fic Seven Deadly, after a ghazel I wrote, but the title didn't work as well with the story as it did with the poem. Then, I thought about using something alluding to The Divine Comedy. In the end, Terza Rima ended up as the name. I'll figure out a way to work it into the story somehow. It shouldn't be too hard.

Also, sorry about getting the chapter out so late. (Erm… has it been that late?) It's near the end of the semester. I have a research paper due on the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis for my Linguistics class, several philosophy papers to do, my poetry portfolio, and interestingly enough, a research paper on the terza rima for Formal Poetry. I should be able to get in more writing during finals week, as I only actually have one final; most of my work is due this week. Eeep! hides Ihavesomuchworktodo!

Wish me luck!

Meirelle

Thanks for all the reviews! You guys keep me writing.

Responses:

To ulysess: I don't think Lady would be that quick to get all "buddy-buddy" with Dante. She's been holding a grudge for demons for a very long time. I respect your opinion, and I get where you're coming from. However, this is my opinion; I hope you understand. Also, I am not writing Lady off, as you can see. She will play a major part in this story.

To Spazert: Thank you very much! I really owe you one. You're the one who got me off my lazy ass and made me write.

To SaiyAsianMaki: If you know of any fics, please drop me a link. I'd like to read them. I've never come across any on though. There is Spazert's fic, "Why," in which someone is eventually going to turn human. As of yet, it hasn't happened, and that is not the main focus of the fic. There is also a fic by Splendid Shadows called "Dealing With Disaster." To be honest, I'm not really sure what's going on in this one, but it is highly amusing. I recommend both of these. And again, if you have links to these stories, I'd really like to read them.

To Sephiroth1021: My sources must not be good enough, because I have no idea what the DMC4 plot is about. I asked all my buddies over in the DMC livejournal communities, and they have no idea what the plot is about. Your sources must be really good. Hook me up with them. Also, I have a disclaimer. (Thanks. You reminded me to put it in.) There's nothing anyone can really do if I have a disclaimer.

To everyone else: vegg, Illicit Memory, lulukitten:3. Thanks for the reviews!